The HR Cafe

Workplace harassment: 5 types of conduct your policy should prohibit

Stephen Meyer — 2009-07-17T09:51:47-04:00

Dear HR Executive: No self-respecting HR person would be without a workplace harassment policy. You know just how damaging harassment accusations – especially sexual harassment – can be to an unprepared organization. But is your policy all it should be?...

Who’s disabled under ADA guidelines? EEOC takes a broad view

Stephen Meyer — 2009-07-09T09:54:16-04:00

Dear HR Executive: The newly beefed-up ADA guidelines have already made it easier for more workers to file disability discrimination claims. Now it looks like the floodgates will open even wider. The EEOC has issued a series of proposed regulations...

The effects of sleep deprivation on job performance

Stephen Meyer — 2009-07-07T11:37:55-04:00

Dear HR Executive: You don’t want people sleeping on the job, naturally. But you do want people to sleep well off the job. That’s because the effects of sleep deprivation can hurt your bottom line. Lack of sleep causes a...

HR Cafe survey: An outbreak of “cautious optimism”

Stephen Meyer — 2009-07-01T08:41:30-04:00

Dear HR Executive: Everybody says things are looking up. Consumer confidence is climbing. Unemployment seems to be bottoming out. But how does it look from the inside? Are employees really feeling that the worst is behind us? Are they embittered...

Employment testing: Supreme Court puts a premium on getting it right, first time

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-30T15:17:31-04:00

Dear HR Executive, If you test applicants for knowledge, aptitude, skills, personality and the like as part of your hiring process, the Supreme Court just sent you a message: Make sure your testing is appropriate, fair and nondiscriminatory from the...

Employee terminations: Five ways to make your severance agreement bulletproof

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-30T11:36:03-04:00

Dear HR Executive: A severance agreement usually contains a release committing the departing employee not to sue you. But employee termination releases aren’t 100% bulletproof unless you handle them just right. Here, from a recent case involving a Ford Motor...

Discrimination in the workplace: “Ick. You look gross. You can’t work here.”

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-25T09:10:15-04:00

Dear HR Executive: “You’re too ugly for this job.” According to the EEOC, that’s more or less what a manager at Extra Space Management, a storage facility in Gaithersburg, MD, said. The EEOC, which sued the company for disability discrimination...

Employer health care costs: Eligibility audits save money ... but beware the backlash

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-22T09:54:33-04:00

Dear HR Executive, What do you – and your employees – hear when somebody says “health plan eligibility audit”? It’s the latest hot trend being pushed at employers – largely by those who do the audits – as a way...

Sexual harassment: "You probably did it. That’s what men do.”

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-18T11:07:30-04:00

Dear HR Executive: When you field a sexual harassment complaint, it can feel like you're walking a tightrope. Often, you’re dealing with an emotional complainant and an indignant accused – both of whom swear their version of events is the...

Leadership Credibility -- free e-learning module

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-16T09:20:14-04:00

Click here to view a 9-minute rapid learning module for free:Leadership Credibility: The Confidence Base. Act now. The link will expire in 10 days. Dear HR Executive: One of the toughest things we do in our lives is figure out...

Does your telecommuting policy keep offsite workers engaged?

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-15T10:05:48-04:00

Dear HR Executive, We’ve talked a lot about ways to keep employees motivated and productive through the tough economic times we’re living. One solution you’ll often hear is telecommuting. Letting employees work from home at least part of the time...

Surviving a layoff: How to stay lean but not mean

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-12T10:45:03-04:00

Dear HR Executive, After surviving a layoff, do your remaining employees have the skills to work effectively in a leaner organization? It’s a reasonable question, given the number of workplaces that have experienced layoffs in recent months. And the answer,...

Employment testing on trial

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-10T12:48:38-04:00

Dear HR Executive, If you pay attention to the news, you know one of the big stories of the day is President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. And you probably also know that a lot of...

Free training module: How to handle complaints

Stephen Meyer — 2009-06-08T11:33:43-04:00

Click here to view a 9-minute rapid learning module for free: Handling Employee Complaints: What Every Manager Must Know Act now. The link will expire in 10 days. Dear HR Executive: Business 21 has been developing a series of rapid...

Office romance: An employer’s minefield

Stephen Meyer — 2009-05-27T10:20:22-04:00

Dear HR Executive, Well, maybe there’s something to be said for the recession after all: Chances are less than usual that you’ll have to deal with the messy fallout from a failed office romance involving your employees. That’s because employees...

Health insurance costs skyrocket: Do we detect a credibility gap?

Stephen Meyer — 2009-05-26T13:22:52-04:00

Dear HR Executive: The ink is barely dry on the insurance industry’s highly public pledge to trim health insurance costs – or, to be accurate, their nonbinding pledge to work really hard to trim the rate at which health insurance...

Religious discrimination: a pilgrimage to Mecca

Stephen Meyer — 2009-05-15T09:30:46-04:00

Dear HR Executive, My, how the world has changed. A Tennessee employer just had to pay $70,000 for refusing to let an employee depart on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Not too many years ago, a case like this would have...

Employee Health Insurance Costs: Providers, insurers pledge $2 trillion in cost savings … sort of

Stephen Meyer — 2009-05-13T10:54:36-04:00

Dear HR Executive: Back in January, we suggested that health insurers and providers, feeling threatened by the prospect of a public health plan, might start to moderate employee health insurance costs. Sure enough, industry leaders are now pledging $2 trillion...

HR's strategic management role: Getting a seat at the table (part II)

Stephen Meyer — 2009-05-08T12:32:38-04:00

Dear HR Executive: Last week, we posted a scenario involving Marie, an HR director who was trying to change how her CEO thinks about HR. Marie saw an opportunity when the CEO announced plans for a new e-commerce division. To...

Disabled workers: Boomers and their creaky joints

Stephen Meyer — 2009-05-06T10:28:04-04:00

Dear HR Executive, I’m going to be writing today about Baby Boomers, so in a spirit of full disclosure I should say right away that I’m one of them. Anyway, I just saw the latest report on disabilities from the...